The West Seattle Bee Garden is getting ready for its biggest season yet, despite a disappointing discovery over the weekend – vandalism against its student-and-teacher-made mosaic sign. We first reported it after hearing from garden volunteers on Saturday, and then went over to follow up, not just on the vandalism, but on what’s ahead at the garden.

Bee Garden founder Lauren Englund (above) tells us that they are gathering financial and time/skills support to fix the mosaic, but can still use more. Both sides were damaged when someone hit it with a brick – it’s a two-sided sign greeting Bee Garden visitors as they enter and exit on the south side of the garden, which is at 31st/Graham, on the north side of High Point Commons Park. This is the side not shown in our weekend coverage:

If you can offer help to restore it, please e-mail westseattlebeegarden@gmail.com.

Now, looking ahead: Besides the third annual West Seattle Bee Festival in less than three weeks, other activities at the garden this spring/summer include a series of storytimes, 10 am Tuesdays from June 16th through August 18th. On June 23rd, July 14th, July 28th, August 11th and 18th, a beekeeper will be there for a hive demonstration, too.

The bees at the garden now made it through the winter, and will soon be joined by more, as Lauren installs another hive this Thursday. Volunteers made big progress with the garden itself – weeding and planting – last weekend and plan to be out again next weekend.

In June, something new and big will be added to the garden, a pergola designed by Josh Chambers, the architect of the bee enclosure. Before then, seven more school field trips to the bee garden are planned – one all the way from Wallingford! The garden also is getting some enhancements including hive-monitoring equipment so that the garden can participate in research and you can track hive details online, plus sound equipment so that Lauren or beekeeper Krista Conner can narrate and answer questions during demonstrations.

In the meantime, plan to visit for the Bee Festival on May 16th – Deborah Vandermar of the High Point Events Committee is hard at work on that, Lauren says – and later in the summer, the Puget Sound Beekeepers Association will have a Kids’ Day, which Lauren tells us “will have lots of beekeepers onsite, providing activities for kids (scavenger hunt for pollinator-friendly plants, etc.) and multiple hive demonstrations.” Also assisting, Nathalie Gelms, the children’s librarian from the High Point branch. Keep track of all this by checking in at westseattlebeegarden.com.